About the event

GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN! brings together Charles M. Schulz original Peanuts cartoons with work from a wide range of acclaimed contemporary artists and designers who have been inspired by this highly influential and much-loved cartoon. Unique in its enduring appeal, this exhibition explores Peanuts’ renewed agency in contemporary culture and society.

Schulz created 17,897 strips during his life, syndicated to over 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries and translated into 21 languages, reaching a truly global audience in an era long before digital communications. Featuring original strips rarely seen in the UK or Europe, the exhibition will celebrate Schulz’s prodigious output and examine his creative process. Through the prism of the lives and musings of beloved characters, including Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Franklin and Peppermint Patty, Peanuts addressed themes including art, faith, existentialism, race, war and feminism, crossing social and economic boundaries, and standing as a testament to the power of popular arts.

Objects belonging to Schulz are on display, alongside original publications and vintage products, such as fashion designer Kim Jones' sweatshirt collection, the ‘Silver Snoopy’ from NASA that has travelled to the moon and back and badges in support of Snoopy’s presidential campaign.

You can enjoy interactive installations including the Snoopy Cinema, complete with bean bags on a baseball pitcher’s mound, with over an hour of remastered Peanuts TV specials, a real-life reimagining of Lucy’s Psychiatric Help Booth, Snoopy typewriters where you can create a novel starting with ‘It was a dark and stormy night’, and light boxes to learn how to draw the Peanuts gang.

New works made especially for the exhibition include a processed-based performance work by Mira Calix, a film by Andy Holden and a flag drawn by Ryan Gander’s four-year-old daughter to be flown above Somerset House.

Accompanying the exhibition is a rich programme of events, taking place at lunchtimes, evenings and weekends and a beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogue featuring all the fascinating stories from the show.

Official Link: https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/good-grief-charlie-brown